When the day grows dark
by stillbluewater
Summary: Sakura stumbles upon a scroll. It's written by Senju Tsunade.
1. Chapter 1

She laid flat on her roof, eyes closed. Above her, an endless field of stars and the bright pale moon hung against a dark sky. Up here, she could see everything—the whole village laid out before her. The streets had emptied a long time ago, and the vendors had all gone home. In that moment, it felt like Sakura was the only person in the village.

A light wind stirred through her hair, and it sounded like disappointment. Sakura didn't know what to think anymore.

The mission to Wave was the closest she had come to death, and it deeply unsettled her. The way two thin senbon could make it as if someone had died. The swathes of rogue criminals cut down by Zabuza with nothing but a kunai between his teeth. How no matter how powerful Haku and Zabuza had been, in the end they had still fallen like all the others. Sakura wondered if someday she would fall in the same way.

While Naruto and Sasuke had fought on, she had been frozen with fear. Useless. Weak.

She watched the sea of lights before her, watched a village she had lived in all her life, and she didn't know what to think anymore. She had never felt so lost.

Briefly, she entertained the thought of leaving, of going back to civilian life. Civilian life, where she would go into some trade like seamstress or actress or a shop clerk for her family's business. Civilian life, where someday, she was going to come across something much more powerful, like she did in Wave. And she wasn't going to be as lucky then.

She smiled wryly. Besides, the mission pay hadn't been bad. It hadn't been bad at all. Especially when the family shop hadn't been doing too well lately, and for the first time in years, her parents could breathe easy.

With the powerhouses on her team, they'd soon be taking C Ranks on the regular. But first, she had to close the gap between her and her team. She couldn't be weak anymore.

* * *

Kakashi blinked lazily. "How can I help my cute little genin?"

"I want to be on the same level as Sasuke and Naruto. Please teach me." Sakura said.

Kakashi's face took on a more alert look. He was taken aback. Out of all his genin, he never expected Sakura to say that to him. He had kind of been counting on it. Even after all these years, he would never be a good teacher. He would never be as good as Minato-sensei.

Still, Sakura was a quick learner. She would go easy on him. "Okay."

Sakura did a double take. "That's it?" She had at least expected him to try to bullshit some excuse.

"Mm. Let's start with water walking."

* * *

Sakura thought she got the hang of water walking, but she still sunk in a bit sometimes. Her pink hair hung limp in her face, half dried from the sun and dripping with sweat. It was far from glamorous, and she was incredibly glad Sasuke wasn't here to witness it.

Kakashi told her, "Keep practicing it for now. Chakra exercises are the fastest way to increase your reserves. Having extra reserves will open a lot of doors to more powerful jutsu, and you'll be able to last much longer in a fight."

He tilted his head, holding a hand up to his ear. "Ah, is someone calling my name?" He paused. Nodded decisively to himself. "Yep. There must be a kitten in a tree over there." He gestured to the distance, eye curving despite Sakura's incredulous stare.

"Later, Sakura." And in a spiral of leaves, he was gone.

Sakura sighed. It couldn't be helped. At least today was a start.

By sunset, Sakura had mastered water walking, water running, water skating, and every variation there was. Practicing it now was boring as hell. Maybe she should look up some more exercises…yeah, she should definitely do that.

* * *

The shelves were filled with scrolls for chakra control. Most of them were for basic exercises like the leaf exercise, and all of them were unlabeled. Maybe she should look elsewhere…she probably could pester some more exercises out of Kakashi. Just as she turned to leave, she caught a glimpse of an enormous scroll as big as her torso. Curious, she rolled it open.

It was filled with medium to advanced exercises. It was perfect. Sakura checked it out, clutching at it with both hands because it was also heavy as fuck. Maybe this Senju Tsunade could help her.

* * *

The first section of the scroll was filled with exercises, each one eloquently explained. For hours upon hours Sakura pored over it, absorbed in the extensive chakra theory and diagrams. Merely from reading it, Sakura could tell that Tsunade was a high caliber ninja.

And of course, she was. She was on the cover of the third volume of _A History of Konoha Shinobi_. She was one of a powerful trio known as the Sannin. She had revolutionized the healthcare system in Konoha. She was an alcoholic. She was a chronic gambler. She had abandoned Konoha to roam the nations in her grief.

It was she who had guided Sakura through the first of many lessons.

* * *

 _Exercise #4: Chakra Augmentation_

 _Like the tree walking and water walking exercise, this one is widely applicable in combat. Many ninja come to unconsciously augment their attacks with chakra, but the power of such attacks is limited._

 _With fine enough chakra control and the knowledge of the specific muscles and bones to augment, one can achieve maximum attack potential. A punch to a tree may dent it, but an augmented punch could uproot it._

* * *

Ooh, Sakura couldn't wait to try this one out.

* * *

Oof. Sakura winced. She might have broken a bone there, her mom was not going to be happy...

Over the course of many weeks, Sakura broke many more bones in many more places and went on many more trips to the hospital. She even got many more ear-shattering lectures from her mom. But she also mastered augmentation.

* * *

As always, Kakashi arrived three hours late, with an innocent smile that promised pain for today. Sakura hoped it wasn't Tora.

It wasn't. Instead, it was a race through Konoha.

Three genin lined up, tense in anticipation. On either side of her, Sasuke and Naruto were having a staring contest. Sakura merely smirked.

Kakashi was perched on a roof, nose already buried in a book.

"Begin!" And Naruto and Sasuke were already far ahead.

Sakura breathed in. Breathed out. Pulled on her chakra, and she was speeding forwards. Sakura shouted in elation, legs carrying her past a blur of street vendors, past children playing in the street, past Naruto, and finally, past Sasuke. She will never forget the utterly flabbergasted look on his face as she sped past on that bright summer day.

* * *

That bright summer day, when Sakura smacked straight into a lamppost.

* * *

Another day, another D Rank mission. The sun shone down with punishing heat. The farmer grinned as he told them just what they would be doing: pulling potatoes, daikon radish, beets, and anything that would be "an absolute pain to pull out," as Naruto put it. He kind of reminded Sakura of Tazuna.

When she got to her plot of land, she crouched down, drawing chakra towards the tip of her index finger, holding it just beyond her distal phalange, and gave the ground her best flick. All the soil in a one meter radius cracked and loosened up. Sakura let out a small whoop, grabbed a potato stem, and set to work.

By the end, her pile of vegetables was bigger than Sasuke's and Naruto's combined. Kakashi gave her a thumbs up, and she gave him a proud, dirt-streaked grin. The farmer was incredibly pleased with their work, and before they left he pressed a basket of vegetables into her hands, giving her a sun-tanned smile.

That night, Sakura's father clapped a hand on her shoulder. "Good work, Sakura. Maybe you becoming a ninja isn't so bad after all."

Sakura retorted, "Being a ninja doesn't just mean free food…"

Her mother sang, "Well, that's even better!" Sakura raised her head just fast enough to catch her mother winking at her father. Sakura couldn't help but let out a laugh, and her parents soon followed.

* * *

As her team soon realized, Haruno Sakura had terrible aim. This was their first training session with weapons, and Kakashi already regretted it. With a thunk, Sasuke's shuriken hit the bullseye. Naruto's just barely missed the third ring, and Sakura—

Kakashi had to quickly bend over backwards as a shuriken whistled past. He breathed a sigh of relief. It would have shaved off the top of his hair, and Kakashi would have become the laughingstock of Konoha.

"Okay! Let's call this the end of this session!" Kakashi walked up to the training ground, where Sasuke and Naruto were slowly inching away from Sakura.

"Sasuke, widen your stance. Naruto, don't flick your wrist until the last second. Sakura…keep trying. And don't throw it while chakra enhanced. Not until you have one hundred percent accuracy."

Sakura gave him a sheepish smile. "Yes, sensei."

It would be the first of many afternoons that she stayed to practice.

And if Kakashi happened to be watching when Sakura executed her first chakra enhanced bullseye, fist pumping along with Sakura in delight, it wasn't because he was appreciating being a jounin sensei. Absolutely not.

* * *

.

A/N: This is a rewrite/redo of my other fic Precision, which has been discontinued due to various reasons such as plot issues, characterization issues, etc. I'm much happier with this version, and I hope you will enjoy it too!

Thanks for giving Chapter 1 a chance!

I promise it will get better, so please give Chapter 2 a try

Please tell me what you think! Like it/hate it/think it has some potential? Drop me a comment :D


	2. Chapter 2

Sakura sprinted along Konoha's rooftops, waking up a string of people along the way. She could swear she was getting quieter, but recently there have been a lot of people on the streets complaining about being woken up at "ass o'clock in the morning," as that one civilian lady had said.

That same lady had also been screeching and chasing her for several blocks now, as she had been for the past week. No matter how early Sakura woke up to practice, she was always there, ready wake up anyone and everyone in her fury. She was the main reason that Sakura now wore a mask and a hood over her distinctive hair whenever she traveled by roof—she held no illusions as to the depth of the pettiness of that lady. Hell hath no fury like a woman awoken before she felt like it.

A tomato soared past Sakura's head, barely missing her nose, and she slid into a barrel roll to avoid the next few projectiles. There were several _splat_ s. It was followed by an angry shriek the next street over. _I'm having such a splendid day so far_ , Sakura griped. It would be just her luck to have two harpies on her trail every day thereafter. Her train of thought was interrupted as she threw herself to the side to avoid another tomato.

Well, one thing she could say of new routine was that every run was a dodging exercise, and Sakura had quickly become a pro at evading the rotten things _._ It was pathetic enough the first few times, and Sakura wasn't about to remain that way.

Sakura vaulted into the next street, startling a certain youthful member of Team Nine.

A mere second later, the lady appeared around the corner, and Sakura had to execute a quick dash on the wall to avoid her. Another hop to the roof spared her from another tomato. It took her another few blocks before she noticed a guy clad head to toe in green spandex beside her. He gave her a blinding grin and a thumbs up.

Sakura was spared having to respond by a new wave of rotten produce. _Well,_ she thought, _as long as he doesn't get in my way._

* * *

By the tenth run with the guy, who enthusiastically introduced himself as Lee, Sakura admitted he had grown on her. The competition wasn't bad either, and Lee was wicked fast, often leaving Sakura in the dust. It only pushed her more. And Lee, unlike Sasuke, never seemed to resent her weakness. Unlike Sasuke, he never seemed to resent her progress, either. Every step of the way, he practically overflowed with optimism and gushed over Sakura's every success.

It didn't stop them from constantly trying to one up each other though. It started with Sakura's barrel rolls, and soon they were competing in doing any number of acrobatics in their races on the roofs. By now, they were widely known throughout Konoha, and often people would settle down to watch their runs. Kids pointed at them, eyes wide with wonder, and it made for some very good PR for the Academy. It was embarrassing. It was exhilarating. With her face completely hidden, Sakura felt free to give herself over to her impulses. No matter how much she sweat or yelled or said crass things, Lee never judged. And at that time, that was the most important thing in the world to her.

By the twentieth run with Lee, Sakura realized with exasperation that they were more or less rivals.

* * *

"...I bet I can climb the Nidaime's monument the fastest." Sakura leaped over a chimney.

Lee backflipped over a power line. "Yosh, my mysterious rival! I will take you up on your youthful challenge!"

They sped towards the stone faces.

* * *

Lee won again. Overwhelmingly so.

Sakura had already flopped down over the Nidaime's faceguard, face red. Lee was also breathing heavily.

"Hey...Lee." Sakura propped herself up with a hand on the Nidaime's eyebrow, sticking her head out to squint at the monuments. "Don't you think the Yondaime's face looks a bit weird…?"

"Hmm, it looks as if the sculptor was overly youthful in forming his nose. What enthusiasm! I'm sure the Yondaime appreciated it despite its execution!"

Sakura let out a laugh. "Yeah, that's one way to put it."

They lapsed back into silence.

"You're in Team Nine, right? Been genin for a while?"

Lee nodded.

"What's your team like?"

Lee's eyes shone brightly and he took a deep breath, "Tenten-san is a weapons enthusiast! She carries a huge scroll filled with them, and she's nice to everyone, even Neji-san when he's in a really bad mood. Though Neji-san seems to have his own obstacles to overcome, so he's often in a bad mood, but we don't blame him. He's a byakugan user and ever since joining the team, he's never made a single mistake, it's amazing!"

"And Gai-sensei! Even though I've been his student for months, I still have lots to learn from him. He took me on even though I couldn't use chakra, and gave me taijutsu instead. He's a great guy. No, he's the best!"

Sakura stared in amazement. Lee had barely taken a breath during his entire speech, he must really love his team. Then his words registered. "Wait, no chakra? How did you get up here?" Sakura looked back and forth from the foot of the Hokage Monument to Lee. It had been strange how Lee had used more of a climbing position when going up to the top...

He gave his signature grin again. "Practice! If you practice enough, there's no need for chakra. I do pushups, pull-ups, curls, squats, and lots more! You can practice constantly too, like this, see?" He pulled back his legwarmers. Underneath were...weights? _What?_ Sakura screeched internally. _He had weights on this whole time?_

There, in that moment, Sakura had the inexplicable feeling that she was witness to someone who would become legend.

* * *

She vowed to follow him into legend.

* * *

Naruto was bored out of his mind. Kakashi was late again, and there was nothing he could do about it. As he had quickly learned, Kakashi could always tell when he didn't arrive at eight, and the consequences were always nasty. What Kakashi wanted them to do in three hours, Naruto had no idea.

It was ten now, and Naruto could only nap so much before even that got boring. Around him, multiple shadow clones laid listlessly on the ground, too tired to even bicker or dispel themselves. Across him, Sasuke looked equally bored, and even the spikes of his hair hung limp today.

The only exciting thing that might happen today was Sakura's inevitable punishment when Kakashi noticed she wasn't here.

"Oi, Sasuke…have you seen Sakura today?"

"Obviously not. Dobe."

"Teme!"

"Hn."

"Hey guys…I'm right here." There came the disembodied voice of Sakura. Where was it? Naruto looked to the left. He looked to the right. He looked up—wait. He looked to the right again. Two green eyes peered out from a bush.

"Aaaaah! Who, who, who are you! What have you done to Sakura?!" Naruto and all his clones had jumped up simultaneously and were now hugging each other in fright. Even Sasuke gave a startle as he realized that the bush in front of him was definitely not a bush.

Sakura released her chakra, allowing the leaves to fall from her body. "I _am_ Sakura."

"Eh?" Naruto stared. "Ehhh? Sakura, how'd you do that?"

"It's the leaf exercise, Naruto."

"Oh. That's so cool, Sakura-chan! Could you teach me too?" Naruto gushed. Even Sasuke was leaning forward in interest.

"Uh, okay. If you want to." Sakura had a foreboding feeling it was going to be like the tree walking exercise all over again.

* * *

Sasuke gave Naruto a superior smirk as he stood with his entire right arm covered in leaves.

Naruto stuck his tongue out. Took a huge breath.

Sasuke seemed to realize what Naruto was planning, and started to turn his arm away from Naruto.

Too late. Naruto let out the huge breath of air, blowing half of Sasuke's leaves to the ground.

"Oi, dobe!"

Sakura sighed. From higher up in the forest canopy, chakra completely concealed, Kakashi smiled.

* * *

.

A/N: There's this one reddit post called "This has to be the ugliest depiction of Minato's head ever." and it made me laugh for five minutes straight. So that's where that scene came from :D

Please give me a review! Kind reviews encourage me to get better, and critiques give me a kick in the ass, so whatever your thoughts, I want to hear them!


	3. Chapter 3

_Up. Down. 63. Up. Down. 64. Up. Down. 65_.

Sweat dripped down Sakura's bangs in a growing puddle on the ground. Her arms were screaming in exhaustion, and she wanted nothing more than to collapse. There was only one thought in her head: Keep going.

Every time her habits crowded in and she started to dream of a nice clean shower or a comfy day inside, the daydream almost visceral in her yearning for it, she repeated this to herself like a mantra. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.

It had aligned with her life in a lot of ways.

Sometimes she would take one look at her team, at Lee, at everyone else and just want to go back to bed. She didn't want to practice anymore. She was sick of it, sick of losing to them, no matter how hard she tried. She would never get better anyway.

 _Up. Down. 82. Up. Down. 83. Up. Down. 84._

She'd go to team meetings feeling like the lowest of the low and _still_ try her best because she never really gave up, and it would make her feel worse when her best still didn't make any difference. After, she'd wander around Konoha alone. Her feet always led her back home, and she'd think, _just a little while longer._

 _Up. Down. 98. Up. Down. 99. Sakura's arms gave out. She slammed a fist against the floor._

Despite everything, Sakura always kept going.

 _Sakura laid there for a long time. Then she picked herself up for the next exercise._

* * *

Sakura reached a hundred pushups. Then a hundred pull ups. Then a hundred squats, a hundred lunges, a hundred yard dash in under ten seconds.

Then she reached two hundred, and a hundred seemed insignificant.

* * *

Having a base for chakra enhancement, Sakura found, made her strength so much more. If before she could run like the wind, now she was like lightning. The streets of Konoha rush away beneath her on her runs now. (She also ran into posts a lot more now.) The citizens of Konoha ask specifically for Team Seven on their D Ranks now. Between Sakura's newfound strength and the entire Team Seven's rivalry, they made short work of the missions. At this point, the cash _really_ started flowing in.

Sasuke didn't ignore her anymore.

* * *

It was a dark night and Sakura roof hopping as always when she heard a short, muffled scream. She dropped into the alley below her and the only thing she could process is that some guy was waving a kunai in some other, shorter guy's face, muttering something about handing over his wallet.

The appearance of Sakura had him brandishing another kunai at her. "Run along, girl, or you're both gonna get hurt."

Sakura punched him so hard he flew straight over the wall and into a dumpster.

She turned to the short guy. He looked like he was going to piss himself. He offered his wallet too.

It's not until he stuttered something about her outfit that she realized she was still in her roof hopping gear, mask and hood and all. She probably looked like another street thug. Whoops.

She told him not to worry about it, fished out the kunai guy to drop him off at the police force, and disappeared.

It was another dark night when she stopped a grocery store robbery, dragging an unconscious perp in one hand and his bag of cash in the other. She dropped him off again inside the police force headquarters, with a note to explain the situation. Before the officer at the desk could get a look at her, she was out the door.

Sakura kept seeing petty criminals get their way when they were no more frightening to her than common housecats. But the civilians they terrorized had no form of self-defense to rely on. She couldn't not put a stop to it.

Somewhere along the way, her masked persona had given way from rooftop entertainment to something almost _respectable_. The people she helped didn't really assume she was a thug anymore. The thugs she fought didn't really try to resist anymore. These days, they take one look at her attire and try to run. Her reputation, it seemed, had spiraled out of control, and it wasn't uncommon for the villagers to be cheering her on during her morning runs against Lee.

And it was really pathetic, but these people on the streets treated Sakura with more kindness than she had ever known from anyone except her parents (and, in the past, Ino). It was a strangely persistent warm feeling, and on those days Sakura couldn't stop smiling even when she went to sleep. It felt like happiness and contentment and acceptance and something other. Sakura thought that if need be, she would die to protect that feeling.

* * *

Sakura sighed, Sasuke and Naruto bickering in the background. She had nearly worked through the chakra exercises, and had managed to drag her team kicking and screaming along with her. It was nice, she supposed, be respected enough to get their attention long enough to force them to learn. Although that could be attributed to how intimidated her teammates were by her strength. Kakashi had just introduced them to group formations, and in Sakura's opinion, they still had a long way to go.

 _Naruto had fallen off the bridge into the river and was now blaming Sasuke for it. Sasuke responded with a great fireball jutsu to "dry him off." Naruto promptly summoned shadow clones to form an enormous wave that drenched Sasuke head to toe and dissipated his fireball. And the horrible smell of burnt pond scum filled the air._

But her team included her in their attacks now, and sometimes Sasuke could even be coerced into going for ramen with them.

A day later, Sakura thought that her team actually regressed as she punted Naruto through the fence. That idiot…showing off that degenerate jutsu of his and actually teaching it to some kid. Not just some kid—the Hokage's grandson to boot. Ugh.

Then they got interrupted by some kid with weird purple makeup and a cat ear hoodie, a girl with four ponytails, and a guy who looked so tired she though she had been admiring his eye shadow at first.

Eventually they left, but not before Sasuke revealed himself to have been there the whole time. The whole encounter made Sakura uncomfortable.

Not to mention the Chuunin Exams. Why didn't Kakashi tell them earlier?

* * *

Nevertheless, when their sensei gave them the forms for the exams, Team Seven promptly filled them out. They went out for ramen afterwards.

* * *

Sakura squinted at the next section of the chakra control scroll.

It was covered in drunken drawings, the smell of sake, and a _lot_ of cursing. The cursing in particular was very creative, and Sakura memorized them for later use.

That aside, Sakura took a second look. Tsunade's handwriting was surprisingly neat, and this section was titled "Medical Chakra."

 _Introduction to Medical Chakra_

 _Iryo-ninjutsu. The ultimate fucking medical asset, the fucking pinnacle of chakra control. Many have tried to learn it but failed due to the rigorous training methods required. This final section will one day save your life, and is not to be taken lightly._

 _Exercise #1: Anatomy and Physiology_

 _To be able to heal a wound, one must first understand the human system. There are eleven main organ systems: circulatory, skeletal, muscular, immune, respiratory, integumentary, nervous, endocrine, urinary/excretory, reproductive, and digestive. Below is a list of reading material (yep), including fifty-seven required reading items and forty-three recommended reading items…_

Sakura flipped to the second exercise.

 _Exercise #2: Pathology_

 _To be able to recognize an illness, one must be able to tell its key signs, and be able to recognize it based on not only symptoms, but also the situation in which it occurred and the characteristics of the patient. Below is a list of reading material (again), including sixty-nine required reading items and…_

Sakura unwound the scroll further.

 _Exercise #3: Toxicology_

 _Self-explanatory. Poisons are one of the most useful weapons in a ninja's arsenal, and one of the most troublesome for a medic nin. There are more than a hundred thousand varieties of poison catalogued in Konoha alone, and more than ten thousand varieties have been identified from foreign Hidden Villages. Required reading (given up yet?) includes…_

Sakura kept flipping.

 _Exercise #4: Ophthalmology_

 _The study of the eye. As in the case of the disgustingly overpowered dojutsu, this discipline is self explanatory…_

 _Exercise #5: Obstetrics_

 _Or, the study of pregnancy and childbirth. Sometimes these things happen in the field. And they are not fun…_

And Sakura kept flipping.

 _Exercise #20: Psychology_

 _Useful not just for patients. Exceedingly handy for medic-nin as well. Don't overdo it, though. There's a thin line between medic-nin and Morino Ibiki._

Sakura stopped. There were way more exercises beyond that. And this hadn't even gotten to the practicals yet!

Right then Sakura was reminded of Lee and his ridiculous challenges. At least he didn't have to deal with horrendously bad drawings. Out of the corner of her eye in the ophthalmology section, Sakura spotted a really bad rendition of an Uchiha. Then a Hyuuga. Then a face beside the words "Morino Ibiki" that was the creepiest thing Sakura had ever seen. Tsunade really liked to exaggerate, huh?

But Sakura's face set in determination. She stared down the drawings, some of which seemed to be staring back at her (ugh). If Haruno Sakura had any advantage over her peers, it was her mind. She was an academic powerhouse, and "perfect test scores not seen since Uchiha Itachi" was not to be taken lightly. She _could_ do it. She knew she could.

Now she just had to start. Which she didn't want to at all. Just imagining the piles and piles of scrolls she would be carrying home made her want to chuck this one scroll out the window. And she had missed her evening run, too. Goddammit.

Sakura slowly peeled herself off the floor, put on her mask and hood, and staggered to the window. She _really_ needed to keep going. She had a newfound role to get back to, after all. And again, Sakura felt the warmth surge up within her. She thought that the feeling felt a little bit like motivation.

* * *

.

A/N: Yo! Chapter 3 is up!

Bruh I read all the comments for chapter 2 and I was like damn my feelings ;-;

Please review! I read each and every review :D


	4. Chapter 4

The next day, Sakura went about her routine as usual. She woke up, put on her mask and hood, and went for her morning run. The sun had not yet risen, and the sky was still dark, leaving Konoha in a dull range of grays and dark browns. Halfway through vaulting over a roof, she was joined by Lee, who gave her his customary thumbs up.

There were a few early risers already setting up shop or going to work. Some of them recognized the roof hopping duo and called out their morning greetings. A small boy chased them through the streets, trying to keep up and waving all the while. Sakura grinned under the mask and waved back. As Sakura and Lee went on, Konoha slowly started to wake up. The first rays of sunlight set upon the roofs, creating highlights of warm brown and bright orange and cool blue.

It was at times like this that Sakura would fall in love with Konoha all over again.

* * *

The next time she flew over the streets, she wanted to be able to carry the headband of a chuunin on her arm.

* * *

Inside the exam room, everyone started cheating. Almost everyone. Sakura solved the problems with ease. Sasuke copied her movements. Naruto started sweating.

Sakura discovered that Ibiki looked every bit as creepy as he did in Tsunade's sloppy drawing.

* * *

In the Forest of Death, it all went downhill when Naruto left to take a piss. Some ninja henged to look like him started attacking, so Sakura's team formed a password. Then there was a huge ass gust of wind that separated them. And then Naruto returned, reciting their password perfectly. But it was no longer him. And then Sasuke and Sakura were dying.

* * *

But again, she was spared. Sasuke had broken their trance, and he now crouched beside her, thigh bleeding profusely from where he had stabbed himself.

"Thanks," She whispered. He nodded back.

And then they were fighting for their lives once more.

Sakura separated from Sasuke, leaping up to a higher vantage point, only to almost get chomped in half by a snake summons. The thing was easily the size of a house! Sakura landed on its head, anchoring herself with chakra, but the snake was thrashing about violently, and she couldn't hold on for much longer.

A baleful yellow eye met hers—and Sakura didn't have time to think, she was to terrified—she just _moved_. She plunged her kunai straight into the eye, and before it could react, Sakura had swung around and already stabbed the other eye. Blinded, it writhed, colliding with the surrounding trees and disappearing in a cloud of steam.

Sakura frowned. She had lost track of Sasuke. In the distance, she saw the shadow of another summons, and she dashed towards it. But before she could act, the summon swelled grotesquely before bursting into Naruto clones. She promptly hugged one of them, guts and all.

* * *

Silently, Sasuke cursed. If the nin wasn't after their scroll, then why even fight them at all? He cursed even more when the summons took a sudden dive towards him. He could only brace himself, but the impact never came. Instead, he was face to face with Naruto. Naruto, who had stopped the snake in its path by himself.

Naruto raised his head, scoffed, "Are you scared?"

And Sasuke didn't answer, couldn't answer, because Naruto was right. He was scared. He needed to preserve his own life, because he needed it to pay for the inevitable cost of revenge. He couldn't afford to die here.

As he watched, Naruto nearly blurred in speed as he faced the nin, barely giving the other enough time to counter.

He laid out punch after punch, and even though the nin dodged each one, Naruto was undeniably pushing the nin to his limit—

In a swift jab, Naruto was unconscious, falling and falling. And the fight was over.

Distantly, he registered the _thunk_ of Sakura's kunai, pinning Naruto to the tree.

The fight was over. Naruto, too, was so easily defeated. And there was no doubt Sasuke and Sakura were to meet the same fate. _The logical course of action would be to cut my losses now_ , a voice in the back of his mind whispered. Sasuke's expression twisted. The voice sounded exactly like Itachi.

Sasuke would not back down. Even at the cost of his life. Even at the cost of his revenge. The avenger in him would never accept it if he died here. But Uchiha Sasuke was the last of his clan, and not one of them would ever forgive him if he left a teammate to die like trash. Not cousin Shisui, not Uruchi-obaasan, not his mother or his father.

He would not be the helpless witness to the death of yet another. Not after his entire clan.

* * *

Sakura landed silently beside Sasuke. Her eyes were trained on the nin.

The nin turned towards them, and he looked…different. His hair was black now instead of brown, and his eyes…like those of a snake.

And Sakura recognized that face, it had been in Kakashi's Bingo Book, and before she could stop it she whispered, "Orochimaru?"

The nin chuckled. His voice was like gravel. "Clever girl." And then his face speeding towards Sasuke.

 _When did he get this fast?_

The last thing Sasuke remembered was all-consuming, excruciating pain.

* * *

All Sakura could process was that the snake sannin had his jaws around Sasuke's neck. And if she didn't do something, Sasuke would die. He was already screaming and screaming and screaming—so she did the only thing she could think of at close range.

She wrapped her hands around Orochimaru's neck, and squeezed.

The seconds stretched into minutes. Orochimaru didn't seem the slightest bit affected.

Sakura's voice wavered. "What did you do to him?"

He merely smiled. "I marked him as one of mine, that's all. Whether he survives the mark…that's an entirely different tale."

Sakura only squeezed harder. Her heart pounded and she couldn't breathe. "What do you mean?"

Orochimaru laughed. "It makes him stronger. But at the cost of something else. You'll see. I'm fairly certain he's strong enough to live." And then he went limp. When Sakura glanced at his original body, another Orochimaru had already crawled out, and he sunk into the tree trunk.

"Farewell for now, Sakura."

And he was gone. Sakura let her hands slacken, let the dead husk of Orochimaru fall into the gloom below. She was tired, frustrated, scared witless, and just so fucking done. But there was no one else now, and death was a very real possibility. Just when she thought she had become something more, it seemed she was weak once again. Sakura pushed herself up, legs shaking from exhaustion and adrenaline and fear, limping over to retrieve Naruto.

At least Sasuke had stopped screaming.

* * *

.

A/N: Yeah, another chapter :D

So last night I was replying to another review and they remarked on the resemblance of Sakura to Spiderman.

And I said, "I'm glad you liked my friend(of)Lee neighborhood Sakura." I spent ten minutes thinking of it and I'm lowkey so proud of my pun :DDD

Anyway, thanks for all your reviews, and please keep reviewing!


	5. Chapter 5

Sakura peeked out of a bush at a group of unsuspecting genin. It was her fifth target so far, and she really hoped this team was a weak one. She would never have a chance against some of the other teams. The team from Sand was by far the strongest. It was also the cruelest. Gaara…that guy was seriously insane. The team from Sound were overconfident but they were a genjutsu specialized team, and it was the one area of jutsu Sakura had no defense against. Sakura couldn't get close to Hinata's team with her byakugan, and she wasn't going to commit sucide by Team Nine, with Lee _and_ another byakugan user.

Night was falling fast, and this team had already set up camp. Sakura continues to wait as they set one person to keep watch while the other two went to sleep. She watches as the night sentry sets several traps around their camp. And still she waits.

After several hours and she no longer heard tossing and turning from the tents, Sakura slips into the camp. She steps carefully over ninja wire, snipping it into unusable strips, steps around traps lined with explosive notes, dismantling them and pocketing the notes. _No need to give the enemy any advantage should things turn sour_ , as Iruka had taught.

Sakura steps quietly towards the sleeping genin. They're high up in the tree, nestled in the junction where the branch meets the trunk. There are much more traps, though, and Sakura makes sure not to disturb them, this close to her targets. And once she gets close, it's a simple thing to tie the both of them to the tree branches they were conveniently sleeping on. Sakura ties off the ninja wire with a handful of explosive notes each.

And with them incapacitated, Sakura looks through their stuff, but as she expected, they left their scroll with their sentry. Or worse, they didn't have one at all. Today was an especially unlucky day.

Sakura smiles grimly. Now for the hard part. Actually fighting the sentry.

* * *

Sakura looks at the back of the last genin, and she waits for a moment. He doesn't notice her, not at all. So she strikes.

Her fist shatters the rock he sits on, shards flying—but she had aimed for him, and Sakura hadn't missed.

Low laughter fills the small clearing, and Sakura tenses as she finds herself surrounded by clones. Countless numbers of shuriken speed toward her, and she leaps up, but still she's forced to parry the worst of it and take the rest of the hits. She releases her own wave of kunai, but once again they run through the clones like they hadn't been there at all.

And unlike Zabuza's water clones, they took hit after hit without even a twitch.

Was it genjutsu? Sakura pulses her chakra. Nothing changes.

Some kind of other clone technique, then. At this point it was more similar to the Academy clones than anything else—weapons passed through harmlessly, as did any other object. But then where did the shuriken come from?

Sakura unleashed another wave of kunai, dropping down as her location was given away. From below the responding wave of shuriken, they seemed to be coming from one direction. She circled around, scanning the clearing all the while. A leaf floated to the ground.

There.

Sakura released a chakra powered punch. The genin dodged at the last second, but only barely. His clones splashed to the ground.

"Che. How unlucky." He was out in the open now, and Sakura had the advantage.

She rushed forward, drawing her arm back.

He smirked and thought, _How reckless._ One step to the left and her swing went wide, leaving an obvious opening.

And he took it. He didn't expect the hand that shot out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him off balance straight into another punch. He blacked out instantly.

In his bag, Sakura found a heaven scroll. She pumped her fist.

 _Score!_

Now all she had to worry about was getting her unconscious team to the tower.

* * *

Naruto yawned, stretched, and scratched his stomach as he looked around.

…This wasn't his room.

He was under some sort of alcove created by tree roots with Sasuke not arguing with him for once and Sakura was nowhere to be seen. All he remembered was how they were facing off against the insanely strong Kusagakure guy. Naruto tried to fight him but the other guy got a hit on him, and then there was a sharp pain in his stomach and he woke up here.

Naruto poked Sasuke, who didn't even twitch. Naruto stuck out his tongue. Boring.

So Naruto gave him another prod to the ribs this time. Before he could pull back, his arm was in an iron grip. He looked up and—

"Sasuke-teme, what happened to you? Did you get infected by some skin fungus or something? Ahh, it's spreading!" Naruto scooted backwards. "Don't get closer! I don't want to get infected too!"

Sasuke blinked. The black markings which had appeared across his face receded. "Naruto?"

Naruto looked at him suspiciously. "What the hell kind of fungus was that?"

Sasuke waved a hand in irritation. "What fungus, dobe?"

"I don't know, it just disappeared. It looked like black patches. Wait, there's still some on your neck!"

Sasuke twisted to look. Naruto helpfully held up his kunai, letting Sasuke see the reflection.

"…What the hell?"

"Yeah."

"It must have been from when that bastard bit me. I don't remember anything after that. Where's Sakura?" If he had passed out, it meant she had been the last one standing. And against an opponent so strong…

"I don't know either. I just woke up too." Somebody _bit_ Sasuke? Somebody bit _Sasuke_? It wasn't the most important right now, but. Naruto shifted nervously. "You don't think Sakura got kidnapped, do you?"

Sasuke's silence lasted for a few moments. "No, I don't think so. We're pretty far from where the fight happened. She must have left us here in a safe place. Our scroll's gone, too. She's not the type to leave someone to die, so."

"Well, we just gotta wait for her to come back, right?"

"Hn."

* * *

"Hey, Sasuke?"

"Hn?"

"I never got to ask—that one time in Wave, why did you save me? You, out of all of us, had the most reason…"

Sasuke exhaled sharply. "To keep living?"

"Yeah."

Around them, the light was fading as the sun went down, plunging them into a dull gloom.

"It was like I said—my body just moved on its own. But maybe it was because I didn't really want to see another person die in front of me. I didn't want it to be because I wasn't strong enough, and the only way for me to live would be to flee like a coward." By his side, Sasuke's hands tightened into fists. "My revenge will always take priority, but I don't want to become _him_ in the process of pursuing it." It was said vehemently, Sasuke's tone low and harsh.

Naruto was silent. Then, "If you had really died there, I would have carried it out for you."

Sasuke whipped around to look at him, eyes wide.

"I can't ever relate to what happened to you. But I know how it feels to be alone, I've been alone all these years, you know? And being on this team…can you believe it was the highest point in my life? I don't know what having a family feels like, but I think that if I did, it would be like Team Seven. So for what it's worth, I would have carried it out for you."

Sasuke looked as if he were unable to comprehend Naruto.

Naruto laughed quietly and punched him on the arm. "Loosen up. It's not like we're completely heartless, you know. No matter how hard Sakura hits or how sadistic Kakashi is. Don't shoulder all your burdens alone, teme."

And then Naruto whispered, "I wish you were my brother instead. It would've been so much better then."

Wordlessly, Sasuke turned back to stare into the darkness. He kept staring for a long time.

* * *

.

A/N: Some context and development, I guess. This characterization of Naruto and Sasuke feels kind of off, but I feel like I actually have motivation to write them for once. This last scene was definitely not a chore, unlike some others. I didn't want them to stay the same as canon, so this is where it really gets different, I guess.

Also, shoutout to the guest who told me that Lee's team was Team Nine and not Team Ten. Thanks for your compliments as well :D

As always, please drop me a review if you liked it, do it also if you didn't like it, and spit some fire at me like Sasuke did to Oboro if you _really_ didn't like it :D


	6. Chapter 6

Sakura leaned against the railing, eyes fixed on the digital display.

Uchiha Sasuke.

Akado Yoroi.

She shot a glance at her obstinate teammate as he made his way toward the arena. The look he gave her was best described as petulant, and she relented.

"Good luck."

He gave the slightest of nods. Even after going through a literal forest of death, his hair remained impeccable, framing his face nicely. Inner sighed dreamily. Sakura sighed in exhaustion.

* * *

Sasuke won, and right afterwards he shot her a look like _I told you so_. Sakura sighed again.

"Good job."

Sasuke blinked, nodded, and then turned to smirk at Naruto.

* * *

Haruno Sakura.

Yamanaka Ino.

Everything went wrong.

* * *

Sakura woke to the white ceiling of a hospital room and the bitter taste of failure.

A nurse eased her door open, probably making her morning rounds. She briefly checked Sakura's vitals, declared her in perfect health, and led Sakura to the front desk to be discharged.

Sakura went home, pulled her comforter over her head, and slept the day away.

* * *

It was three in the morning when Sakura found that she couldn't sleep any more, leaving her in a state of well-rested misery. So she went to the roof to wait for Lee. He had never judged her before, and he wouldn't judge her now. Maybe he had better luck in the prelims.

Considering his sheer skill, did he even need luck? _Yeah_ , thought Sakura, _he definitely passed._

She put her mask on, the straps snapping into place. She wasn't strong enough to face him yet. But one day, she'll get there. It was only a matter of hard work.

* * *

She was watching the stars when Kakashi landed on her windowsill. Well. That was what he meant to do, anyway. Instead, he saw Sakura mid-flight and smacked right into the wall. Sakura let out a snort and Kakashi ran a hand through his hair, the tips of his ears a fiery red.

"Yo, Sakura, what's up?" He flopped onto the roof, eyes curving into a smile.

"Nothing much, sensei. Just thinking about the exams, I guess."

And so with an orange book held firmly in front of his face, Kakashi told her about the rest of the exams. How Ino also passed out, the same time she did, and that while they both lost, he was proud of her. Sakura didn't say anything, because not only did she lose, she was the only one on her team that did so. Well, at least Naruto had tremendous luck. To win because of a fart, what the hell…

Then, about Gaara. Gaara, who had crushed a boy's arm and leg when it wasn't even a requirement to win. Who would have killed him. About Kankuro and Temari's matches. And Neji, who Lee had once praised so highly.

When he finished narrating the prelims, Kakashi gave her a pat on the head, telling her to come to the team meeting today. And then he was gone in a swirl of leaves, leaving Sakura alone with her thoughts.

It was the only time she had seen him before eleven. Huh.

* * *

Lee didn't come that day. She wondered if he was busy training for the one-on-one matches. Maybe he took a day off…

* * *

Sakura was confused. Extremely confused. Kakashi had chosen to train Sasuke while foisting her and Naruto onto some other teacher, which she understood but definitely did not appreciate. According to Naruto, the guy was some sort of closet pervert, which the guy denied vehemently. Well, at least the guy attempted to train them, but then he started a fight with…a super pervert?

A super pervert, who turned out to be Tsunade's errant teammate. He was…a different kind of teacher. Shameless as all hell, but he didn't seem to mind the two tagalong genin. Naruto's transformation jutsu definitely…helped, but once, when she'd been splitting open the ground while chasing after a yelping Naruto, she caught Jiraiya's fond yet forlorn look. It was strange. Kakashi sometimes looked the same way.

Now, though, Jiraiya looked like he was going to rip his hair out.

"What is that?!" He shouted, pointing to the ground. Looking down, Sakura saw a very small tadpole. Naruto's face screwed up in offense.

"I don't know! Aren't you supposed to teach me to summon toad?"

"That's it!" Jiraiya pointed again.

"…I hate to tell you, ero-sennin, but that looks nothing like a toad."

"Yeah, cause it's only a month old!"

"What?! Why isn't it bigger?"

"Because you literally used enough chakra to only summon a tadpole! Concentrate! And don't come back until it at least has legs!" Naruto went back to summoning grumbling under his breath about pervy old geezers.

Sakura's hand made an audible slap as it met her forehead.

Jiraiya sighed. How was it that even without her influence, Kushina's kid still took after her? Not to mention the girl standing there like the second coming of Tsunade, from her personality to her sheer strength.

"Those are some pretty powerful moves you pulled earlier. Say, where did you learn to do that chakra augmentation?"

Sakura recognized the actual question within. It might have been a bit cruel of her when she deadpanned, "Tsunade. I learned it from Tsunade."

While Jiraiya was busy choking, she elaborated, "Apparently, before she left for war she wrote a scroll on the basics of chakra control, in case she couldn't fulfill some final wish of teaching or something. I found it in the genin section of the library."

Jiraiya's eyebrows shot up. Even when Tsunade was younger she had never been one for teaching. Distant memories of fleeing genin flashed before his eyes. It was the main reason why she never became a jounin sensei…

The silence was growing way too awkward. In an attempt to keep the conversation going, Sakura quickly amended, "Well, she probably intimidated some librarian into putting it there. The latest section is still giving off sake fumes." This time, it was Inner Sakura's turn to facepalm. The silence stretched on.

She didn't expect Jiraiya to start laughing his ass off.

* * *

In the days afterwards, the reminders that she had lost were constant. But it was getting better, and Sakura didn't feel as bitter. Jiraiya had insisted that she show him the scroll, and when he flipped to the section she had mentioned, burst into another fit of laughter. He had glanced through it more seriously the second time though, and even gave Sakura a few tips. He told her that it was what Tsunade would have done.

The medical texts in the scroll, she had also started working through. Her shelves quickly filled up from her trips to the library, and what she couldn't borrow, she bought with mission pay. It was relieving to find something she was good at again.

She had also continued her nightly rounds, but in her morning runs, Lee was conspicuously absent.

* * *

"Hey, Naruto, remember Lee, that guy Sasuke fought? What happened to him?"

When he replied, Naruto's voice was low. "Remember Gaara? That's who he went up against."

"Gaara— " Kakashi's words echoed in her head. _Gaara, who had nearly killed someone..._

* * *

Sakura slammed open to Lee's hospital room. He laid in the hospital bed, still and silent, no loud exclamations. There were bandages over every inch of his body.

She rushed back outside, spotting a nurse in the hallway.

"Excuse me! The patient in room 404…do you know…" Sakura's voice trailed off. The nurse put a hand on her shoulder, and accompanied her back to Lee's room. When she saw who was inside, she looked at him with regret.

"His arm and leg…were completely crushed down to the bone," she said softly. "There's no surgery to fix that. He'll be able to walk, but he won't be able to be a ninja for the rest of his life."

"There's really nothing that can be done?"

The nurse shook her head. "His injuries are too extensive. Even the medic-nin don't have that sort of chakra control. Maybe if Tsunade were here…" The nurse squeezed her shoulder again, and quietly left.

Sakura stared at Lee and tried to reconcile him with the boy who raced with her on rooftops, who paired green with neon orange, whose goal had been to become a ninja without chakra. It wasn't fair. Sakura felt a sudden surge of helpless rage.

But the nurse's offhand comment about Tsunade was what angered her the most. Tsunade was someone who was never going to come back anyway.

"If it's something only Tsunade could fix…then I just have to surpass her." The statement hung in the stale air of the hospital room. It felt like a promise.

* * *

.

A/N: hello everyone i am still alive

this fic is too

more chapters are going to arrive

so please review :D


	7. Chapter 7

Sakura's routine goes something like this:

She'd wake up at six and goes on her morning run. She had gotten good enough now that her steps fall silent on the rooftops, and she had gotten fast enough she blends in with the rest of the ninja. Without Lee's enthusiastic challenges, the tomato lady didn't hear them anymore.

At six-thirty Sakura would drop into the Yamanaka flower shop, mask off, and buy a sunflower from Ino, who never seemed to know how to talk to her. They didn't really know how to talk to each other anymore.

Both were mutually bitter about their loss. Both of them had thought, _Ino won against Sakura all the time in the Academy, so why should it have been any different then?_ Sakura thought it with self-deprecation. Ino thought it with pride and frustration. Why did Sakura ever think she could go up against a Yamanaka clan technique? Why did Sakura of all people have a will strong enough to resist Ino's?

Just one moment of hesitation on Sakura's part and the fight had basically been decided, just because Sakura couldn't take a hit, couldn't think past the brief moment of agony. And Ino, who took the split-second advantage, wasn't strong enough to keep it. And all because she underestimated her former friend, so much she didn't even bother to keep track of her chakra.

But Sakura had thought those thoughts a million times before, and Ino had too. So every time Sakura curled her fingers delicately around the stem of the sunflower, she would utter a quiet _thanks._ And Ino would reply, _you're welcome, please visit us next time_ while handing over the change. Then the silence would fall again, broken once by the ringing of the bell on the front door as Sakura stepped out.

She'd drop by Lee's room, putting the fresh flower in water. It was surprisingly easy just to sit and talk. At first, it was the little things like the meaning of the sunflower. It gradually turned into her history with Ino and medical concepts and the random acts of youth she saw on her runs and how he's going to see it for himself, she'll make sure of it. She would exit out the window just before Gai came in. By then, it would already be seven.

The rest of the day Sakura would spend studying. She worked through Anatomy and Physiology and Pathology and Toxicology, filling entire notebooks and countless sets of flashcards. At the beginning, she constantly had to get out the dictionary. Now, though, she actually semi-comprehended what she was reading. That time she realized it, Inner Sakura made her buy and eat an entire plate of dango as celebration. Sakura would study well into the evening, but sometimes she'd hang out with Naruto and gets more tips from Jiraiya.

At eleven, she'd don her mask and hood and leave on her night run. It was the part of the day she treasured the most, because in those moments, she felt free to be someone else, unbeholden to responsibilities. The night felt endless and lovely, and every time she turned her gaze up to the sky it felt like she was seeing it for the first time again.

It would take her back to better days, before the Academy when Sakura had no friends but no bullies either, in that period of childhood where happiness lasted longer and for far more insignificant reasons. Those days, she would walk with her mother down streets lit red and orange by the sunset, to the grocery store or to run some other errand. And when they walked home, those same streets faded into shadow and an endless stretch of stars and lanterns hung over them like fairy lights.

Most times the runs would yield some small crime. Sometimes, though, there was nothing suspicious, and those nights Sakura end up feeding stray cats by the dumpster behind the Academy. Some were extremely affectionate, winding around her ankles and purring. Most of them stayed out of reach, though. There are too many to remember, so the friendly ones get called Naruto, and the others get called Sasuke.

By the end of the week there were seventeen Sasukes and ten Narutos.

* * *

With the way Sakura was going, it was only inevitable she met a criminal she couldn't handle. It was on a rainy night, the drops falling loud and slipping down into the street gutters. Sakura had considered taking an umbrella, but she had never roof hopped in rain before, and she didn't want to get distracted and brain herself and die.

It turned out that she didn't need it anyway. The rain was really hailing down when from out of nowhere she felt pain bloom like fire across her back. She lost her balance, dropping down into the alley below. There were several clinks as kunai fell from her back.

Sakura breathed out harshly. _Fuck._ She had never met anyone with ninja training on her runs before. It made sense, though. She could have pissed off any number of someones, who could know any number of ninja. Combined with the 2/3 of the academy graduating class that failed every year…

Sakura reached behind her, pulling out the last of the kunai. They came out easily, leaving behind shallow wounds. At least the ninja reject had weak throws, despite their accuracy. She pressed herself against the alley wall, pulling out her own kunai and straining to hear over the accursed loud rain. There was a louder splash and a spray of water as her attacker landed atop the alley wall. Sakura let her kunai loose, but the other flipped back into the last alley.

Sakura leapt over the wall, another wave of kunai flicked out to cover her. Her attacker deflected them with ease. The screeching of metal rang out as he leapt upwards, grazing Sakura's shoulder. She let loose a series of chakra infused punches, but the other dodged effortlessly, weaving past her as brick shards exploded from Sakura's hits. Cuts opened along Sakura's cheek and arms where his slashes connected. He didn't even seem tired. Like her, his face was obscured in a simple cloth mask and a hood. The give-and-retreat lasted for a ridiculously long time. Even her attacker's brows knitted together in frustration.

Sakura gritted her teeth. Her power didn't mean shit if the guy kept dodging. If only she could land just one hit…

Her attacker ran two steps up the wall, and pushed off towards her. This time, Sakura only shifted slightly, letting him slip past her guard, and his kunai jammed deep in her shoulder. She gritted her teeth harder and grabbed his wrist, adding chakra until he could no longer break free. Before his other hand could reach his pouch, Sakura gave him her best right hook. The impact splayed him on the ground, dazed with his wrist still in Sakura's grasp. _Finally._

Sakura wasn't much better, though. Her shoulder wound was gushing like a faucet. The rain had turned freezing and she was feeling really lightheaded. He made to get up when a third ninja dropped into the alley, wearing a porcelain white mask. Sakura wanted to cry in relief. ANBU.

The ninja restrained her attacker, turning to say something to Sakura, but the rain was pouring more than ever and there was ringing in her ear—

And with that, Haruno Sakura passed out.

* * *

Sakura woke again to the white of the hospital.

"Sakura!" And was promptly engulfed in a hug by a frantic Naruto. Sakura patted his back weakly.

"Naruto? What happened? How did I get here?" All she remembered was the ANBU nin…

"Sakura, you got mugged really badly! Someone saw you bleeding out in an alley and went to get help. Some ninja had to carry you all the way to the hospital!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Have there been any other visitors?" Nothing enraged her mother more than her being past curfew. And she had been _way_ past curfew.

Naruto shook his head and she sighed in relief. Her parents probably thought she had left on her "morning run" already. They already disapproved of her career choice, better to not give them any fuel. But Sakura thanked whoever in her career who made the rule that genin were legal adults fully in charge of their medical records. Her parents would never know about this if she could help it.

Sakura touched the scratch on her cheek. It was barely there. Good.

Then Sakura paled, looking around the room. She had thought something was off. Even though there was a stack of clothes on her bedside table…her mask was gone.

* * *

Sakura was discharged in a blur of dread and feelings of I-fucked-up.

When she got to her room, the mask laid innocently on her desk.

* * *

.

A/N: This chapter was a bitch and a half to write for some reason. I don't like this chapter at all. It feels dead ;-; and I feel like fight scenes at this point are just fighting _me_.

Anyway, another update :D

Please review! I feel like (esp in this chapter) I really need it ;-;


	8. Chapter 8

At dawn, Sakura put on the mask again and jumped from her window. Tonight there are clear skies and perfect conditions. And not a criminal to be seen. When she visits the Academy dumpster, the cats are few and far between, and they stare out into the darkness as if wary of something there. When she turns, Sakura swears she saw a glimpse of bone white. When she blinked, it was gone. Perhaps it was just a calico cat.

Sakura's nightly ventures are a constant reminder of her close call. With this on her mind, she takes the trek to the outskirts of Konoha to ask Sasuke to spar, where she finds him laying at the bottom of a Sasuke-shaped crater. Kakashi dusts off his gloves and gives her a cheerful wave. When Sakura poses her question, he gives her a pained look. So Sasuke busy learning how not to die in the one-on-one exams, and Kakashi was too busy teaching him.

She tries to spar with Naruto, who can only offer limp fish punches which she finds out are because he is scared of hitting her. So her team is hopeless. Again, she glimpses chilling bone white.

When Sakura gets ready for her next night run, a slip of paper falls out. On it are the words: "Training Ground 43" and a small stamped insignia of a fractured circle.

Sakura frowns. Training Ground 43 is never used as a training ground. Occasionally Konoha will hire a genin team to clean out the cigarettes and the trash, but it has long since been unusable. She returns to it now. The training ground is silent in the moonlight. Ancient Hashirama trees from a bygone era loom tall and cast long shadows. A feeling of profound solitude surrounds her.

From behind her she hears footsteps. The ANBU with the bone white mask walks past her. He walks for some distance, then turns around to look at her. Sakura points to herself. The ANBU nods. So Sakura follows him. And stops when he walks straight through a Hashirama tree. A few moments later, his top half reemerges and he inclines his head to the tree. So Sakura follows him.

Walking inside of a tree is…a new sensation. But when she steps through, it's not into the clearing but into a chasm. Sakura screams. All the way down for ten feet, when she lands on her feet, beside the amused ANBU. She follows him down a flight of stairs, where torches lit themselves and danced in their light.

The first thing Sakura notices is the divine smell of food. Then the drunken singing. Is this a bar? Then, the ringing of blade against blade and raucous cheers. Or is it a bar fight? Sakura gives her companion a look, but he waves his hands forward for her to keep going.

Then, there is light. Pale yellow, seeming to confirm the existence of a bar, yet when she steps into it, she sees what was beyond. Hundreds of rooms recessed into the floor of what seemed to be a natural cavern, with their ceilings open. Some rooms are occasionally illuminated by the flash of fire jutsu or emit smoke and light. Other rooms remain dark. Ninja crowd around each room, placing bets and drinking amongst themselves, watching the fights below.

Beside her, sitting on a desk with a sheaf of papers, an old man clears his throat. Sakura saw that he, too, was wearing a mask.

"How many?" he asks. The ANBU holds up two fingers.

The old man gives him a wooden board with the number 97, and the ANBU ambles down to another staircase. There, they navigate a maze of passages until they found a door marked 97.

"Who are you?" Wait, dumb question to ask an ANBU. "I mean, why are we here? And what is this place?" He pauses, then holds up a hand, palm open for her to wait. They enter the room, where the ANBU flicks on the lights, took out a pen and a stack paper, and begins to write.

 _We are at the true Training Ground 43. It was formed from the time of the founding of Konoha, similar to Training Ground 44. You are here because we have seen what you have done, what you can do for the village. We are here because you wished to spar. If you accept this spar, we will train you to the standards that we ourselves are held to. It will not be easy. Kakashi-senpai, genius that he is, did not make a very good teacher. If you do not accept, you are free to go. The training ground will still be open to you._

The ANBU gazes at her.

 _Haruno Sakura, what is your answer?_

Sakura gazes back. "Why is a member of the ANBU offering this to me? Why not to Sasuke? He has the Sharingan."

The ANBU huffs.

 _The ANBU does not solely recruit from the likes of Kakashi. Sasuke is focused on revenge on one killer. You are focused on protection of this village. Petty crimes are not within the jurisdiction of our division—it is with the police. Yet with the arrival of a vigilante, these crimes have lowered dramatically._

Here, his eyes glint with mischief.

 _And if we happen to train you, no one is going to know. Will you accept our offer?_

Sakura doesn't really see any reason why not. For some unknown reason, she trusts this person. He feels...safe. So Sakura says, "Yes. Let's spar."


	9. Chapter 9

Sakura says, "Yes. Let's spar."

"Alright, let's start with—"

"You can talk!" Sakura exclaims. His voice is surprisingly young. She looks at him critically. He is actually very short, being just a few centimeters taller than her.

The ANBU chuckles. "Yes, I can. It's protocol to not reveal anything about ourselves to others. If you had rejected the spar, I would have remained just another ANBU."

Sakura nods. That makes a lot of sense. Inner Sakura wonders if they're about the same age. To Sakura, the thought of someone so skilled being at her age rankles. Inner just wants to know if he's cute under that mask.

Sakura waves a hand to dispel the thoughts, and leaps to the other side of the room. The ANBU does the same.

Sakura waits, watching him, but it seems he is content to let her make the first move. So be it. She runs forward, kunai in hand and aiming a line of shuriken low towards his feet. As he retreats, she steps, pushes off the ground until she rises above the walls of the room. As she falls, she releases barrage after barrage of kunai, covering the entire room.

The ANBU is forced to draw his tanto to deflect the kunai. With a rush of wind, he also takes to the air, tanto spinning through the waves of kunai. There are a few disgruntled shouts. A few spectating ninja are forced to pull out blades of their own to deflect the stray kunai.

Their blades clash in midair. Sakura's breath is knocked from her lungs as the ANBU's leg comes down on her shoulder, and she falls against the floor, her own kunai that she had released earlier scattering around her. Sakura quickly takes to the wall, preparing for the ANBU's descent.

The ANBU lands on the opposite wall. "Good strategy. But once you got in the air, you didn't react fast enough. That is your issue—reaction time." He aims a kunai at Sakura and lets another kunai fly wide. As she raises an arm to deflect, he throws another kunai at the wayward one, changing its trajectory toward her. There is a ring as the first kunai falls to the ground. Then, there is a thunk as the second kunai sinks into the meat of Sakura's shoulder.

Sakura gasps with the pain. Fire tears up her right side before it fades into a dull throb. With her left hand, she releases another ten shuriken, but even with her enhanced strength, he flicks them aside easily.

"Sometimes your opponents will pull tricks with kunai, ones that leave you with no time to strategize. The only thing you _can_ do is react."

Here, he sends four more kunai flying. All of them go wide.

Sakura drops to the floor, but four more kunai merely change the angle of the first four and Sakura is forced to shield with her right arm as she deflects the two kunai on her left.

"Don't rely on your sight. Too many things to keep track of can deceive you. Most basic genjutsu is based on sight. Augment your perception with hearing and sense the displacement of the air." Another spray of kunai.

By the end of the spar, Sakura is holding herself up by the wall and is sitting gingerly on a most uncomfortable pile of used weapons.

She just wants to go to sleep and never wake up. The ANBU is annoyingly pristine, not a speck of blood on him. Sakura hates him a little bit. A lot.

 _This is what power looks like._

"I'll be back with a medic. Keep pressure on your shoulder wound and don't go anywhere, alright?" He patted Sakura's head. "You did well."

Sakura groans.

* * *

Kabuto leans against the wall as he sends off another healed ninja. For some reason, the higher level they are, the more they hate to go to the hospital.

"Kaito-san, there are a few more patients outside, shall I send them in?"

"Ahh. I want a cigarette," he says under his breath. It's not like they aren't all rich as hell, with their A-ranks and their B-ranks. At least they pay him from time to time. Danzo provides everything he needs, but just that. There's no budget for him to get new books, new medical equipment, nothing! He doesn't get paid for being in Root either.

"Kaito-san? Are you alright?"

He sighs. "Yeah, you can send them in now."

* * *

Kabuto is leafing through the bills when a ninja with a bone-white mask slips in. The mask is the same as the one Kabuto is wearing, of course, but he knows just who this is. One of his more troublesome patients, to be honest. He sighs again.

"Kaito-san, could you come over? We have another injured."

Kabuto looks at him in vexation. "Kaito-san, Kaito-san, Kaito-san," he mocks. "If it's another jounin or chuunin or what have you, tell them to go to the hospital."

"No can do, Kaito. Potential recruit."

"Who is it?" Danzo never tells him anything.

"Haruno Sakura." Under the mask, Kabuto smiles. Interesting.

* * *

Sakura stares at the roof of the cavern. She's not sure if she should be seeing stars there. Hmm.

Ah! Someone just landed in front of her. It's the ANBU again. Wait, no. His voice sounds different. Another person lands in the room. Sakura squints. Now there are two of them!

The new ANBU clears away a patch of kunai and eases her down. His hands glow a fiery green as the pain in Sakura's shoulder recedes.

 _This is…iryo-ninjutsu? Wow! So cool!_

"Medic-san, medic-san, what should I call you?" Sakura pats at her shoulder happily. It's fully healed.

"Ah, I forgot to introduce him," the one that's not the medic laughs sheepishly. "This is Kaito-san. He's the medic for Training Ground 43."

"For this training ground, among other places. Nice to meet you," says the medic.

Sakura is mesmerized by the green light. She abruptly realizes something. "What's your name, then?" She asks the other ANBU. "You never told me."

"Oh yeah!" He sounds genuinely surprised. How can a person sound so genuine from behind a mask? "Call me Shin."


	10. Chapter 10

It's been a few months since Shin's offer, a few months of blood and cuts and fortunately, some improvement. Sakura doesn't harbor pretensions about how quickly she learns, surrounded as she is by a crop of child genii, but Shin's pride always makes something quiet and calm ease into her nights.

Not only Shin, but Kaito has been training her. When she had expressed interest in medical techniques his eyes had gone sharp and gold and he had offered to teach her. So it was that she toiled her nights away underground, feeling the blades of Kaito's chakra and learning to form her own. That first time-when he made that first cut and she bit the inside of her mouth to distract herself from the pain-he had smiled a humorless smile and explained that it was the fastest way he knew to train her. The words seemed rehearsed and strange, almost as if a mantra passed down to him by another ninja.

When she drops down into Kaito's alcove, he tells her that Shin is out on a mission tonight. They will work more on the chakra blades first. Sakura and Inner groan in unison. They've always hated this part. Kaito takes a green blade to her arms, and when he's cut deep enough that blood wells out, he stops and asks Sakura to heal it.

Generating medical chakra comes easily enough to her, and she closes her eyes against the yellow flicker of underground lighting. Reaches down into the silence. In between the pain and the instinctual desire to live, she takes her chakra and directs it to the cuts. It feels cool and soothing, and Sakura weaves it like strands under her skin, in a pattern she's felt Kaito weave a little less than a hundred times before.

When she heals correctly, it feels right and true and the pain fades like she had never been cut. Her chakra would rush through and leave only a cold tingling behind. But when she heals wrong, she feels it immediately in the fire and stiffness of her skin. Those times are the worst. Those times, Kaito would have to cut away the scar tissue, painstakingly retracing the previous cuts, reopening the wound to heal it himself. His work always left her skin flawless, pale and perfect and cold.

With caution borne of experience, Sakura spins thin wisps of her chakra, winds them through the cut. With a pull, the cut closes. The feeling of rightness guides her as she sews together skin and muscle. When the last of the pain disappears, when she wipes away the blood to unblemished skin, a rush of relief nearly overwhelms her. Sakura shares a triumphant smile with her mentor.

Kaito says, "Ready to take over? I need a smoke break," just to watch her pale. "Good," he smirks, "don't get cocky and soon enough you'll be able to take over for real." _And maybe he'd finally get more funding! Actually, now that he thought about it, taking Sakura on as an assistant would be nice._

Through this pain, Sakura learns to heal.

* * *

She goes to register for classes at the Konoha Hospital, because she needs an excuse for her sudden medical skill. The nurse at the front readily hands her the application, and the whole affair is over in a matter of minutes. She tests out of the beginner classes ( _as expected_ , Inner Sakura says and flips her hair), and her first class is uneventful. She learns cool jutsu, ones that let her sterilize wounds and clean hair and act as local anesthesia that Kaito had used but never gotten to teaching her.

The instructor had said that practice was important, so she spends the first half of her night practicing on the dumpster cats and feeding them. She doesn't dare to heal them yet, not with her skill level, but she runs hands through their fur and gives them pseudo-baths as they purr and wind around her ankles. Even the Sasuke-cats are warming up to her, letting her flick their ears before slipping away.

* * *

Sakura examines a tomato critically before placing it in her bag. The vendor is examining her equally critically, and she's trying not to sweat. She recognized this particular vendor. Mainly, her rotten produce that she had spent her earlier genin days dodging. Thankfully, the tomato lady doesn't recognize her and Sakura quickly pays and leaves.

* * *

Sakura likes to cook. It's one of the only corners of her life that makes sense. Cut the tomatoes, turn on the heat, measure the oil, etc etc. The aroma of cut vegetables fills the room.

She's so lost in thought she cuts into an extra tomato. Shoot! She was supposed to save that for tomorrow's salad.

But then.

Then.

 _If we can heal us, I bet we can heal this tomato_ , says Inner.

 _No way_ , thinks Sakura.

 _Oh yes_ , says Inner.

* * *

After a lot of arguing, Inner convinces her to give it a try. Sakura can't believe she is about to heal a tomato. Inner tells her, _outside of Kaito, it's the only practice we're going to get_.

Sakura pours her chakra into the tomato. It feels strange and watery and different. There is the stiffness of fiber and the smoothness of its skin and when Sakura tries to thread her chakra through it, the tomato provides no resistance and she thinks she put too much power into it. In short, the tomato explodes.

Sakura scowls. It's not a good feeling that talented as she is, she is so imprecise as to achieve the same results Naruto and Sasuke did on that tree walking exercise. She wipes up the tomato and gets started on dinner, pouting internally.

* * *

Ever since the explosion, Sakura has been secretly funneling funds into buying tomatoes. The Haruno family has seen a rise in tomato-themed food, from tomato soup to salad to salsa. And just like Naruto and Sasuke, she learned from the explosions, gentling her chakra until it melded into the tomato.

A curious side effect is an increased skill at sensing tomatoes. She can't sense in more than a five-meter radius, but when she goes to the market the tomatoes from various vendors pop up with their tiny tomato shaped chakra signatures. Each one feels different—whether it's ripe or heirloom or freshly harvested all change its signature. Sakura is dismayed to reach the conclusion that it is the tomato lady who offers the best tomatoes.

Well, it would be useful for later dodging, if Lee recovered and his shouts provoked the tomato vendor again.

 _No_ , Inner amended, _not_ if _he recovered_.

When _he recovered_ , agreed Sakura.

* * *

When Sakura finally mastered the tomato, Inner said, I bet we can heal the cabbage…

Sakura goes shopping for the second time that week.

* * *

.

A/N: im alive lmao

shin will probably appear next chapter

maybe sakura will get to a point when she can sense across fire country, sense all the tomatoes, and become a tomato chef


End file.
